Jim Linderman blog about surface, wear, form and authenticity in self-taught art, outsider art, antique american folk art, antiques and photography. Dull tool and dim bulb were the only swear words my father ever used. Items from the Jim Linderman collection of vernacular photography, folk art, ephemera and curiosities. (Note: if anyone believes an image contained violates their rights or insults their intelligence, simply point it out and I will remove)

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Browsing around to find some background about this photograph, I came across a plaintive and heart-wrenching comment on "Behind the Curtain" the wonderful photographic blog of the State Journal Register, the oldest Newspaper in Illinois. The comment comes from the daughter of the woman shown above. I am leaving the name off the comment to protect her privacy in what must be a difficult time. The comment is dated February 20, 2011.

"This is my mother and she is the most wonderful woman I know!! She is 93 and on her last days of life what a blessing she is!"

I own many photographs but several of my favorites turn out to be photographs of Betty Fox.I treasure the second here particularly as I found it among the possessions of my late father, who likely took it himself. As you can see, he was impressed by Betty as well. He took several, I would have too...and I posted some of them earlier HERE, they are among the most beautiful photos you can imagine. I am afraid this wasn't due to my father's skill, it was due to Betty and Benny.

God Speed to the wondrous woman named Betty Fox. Many have entertained others, but few with such daring, grace and form. With all the offensive, slimy, divisive (and frequently, Rush Limbaugh inspired) crud clogging "comment" boards today, it is a splendid thing indeed to see such a heartfelt, honest and pleasing contribution from someone who actually has something to say. It made my day.

I don't want to turn my tribute into a screed against "entertainer" Limbaugh, but that fat clown could not begin to touch the toes of this splendid, striking and amazing woman, much less his own.

Thank you Betty Fox for entertaining and astounding so many good people over the years, including my family.

A fine collection of Swizzle Sticks. Now they look harmless, but are FAR from it, as you can see from the abstracted medical journal expose following. Booze and a Broken Stem equals Blindness and a punctured bowel or something.

The Mom and Pop Culture Shop is top of the heap. Not only are the vintage clothes in colors trippy (and for sale!) They post astounding letters like the one above from a prisoner to a model. Now THIS is good writing! They call it "found poetry" but I call it ART. (Sorta) Also see their wonderful collection of wacky outsider art!

The Mom and Pop Culture Shop is HERE The Letter (I Don't Got A) is HERETweet

Are contemporary artists and cartoonists influenced by vintage sleaze? Of course they are! Contemporary artists and cartoonists are influenced by everything! And as long as one person is attracted to (or repelled by) another, there will be situations requiring a piece of work or a gag.In this spirit, Vintage Sleaze (Brother and Sister blog to this site) is proud to announce a new series:CONTEMPORARY VINTAGE SLEAZE

Select artists of TODAY influenced by pinup and risque gag artists of the past are celebrated here with a unique work they have created especially for Vintage Sleaze the Blog! A showcase for (and a tribute to) talented artists who draw today.(Who may just draw upon the drawings of past Sleazy Cheesecake Pinup Masters)PLEASE also take the time to follow links to the individual artist sites! Not only will you see some outstanding work, you might be compelled to purchase, commission or follow the artist. Each and every site is a delight.

Submissions are welcome but we can not post everything. If you draw and enjoy Vintage Sleaze please participate!

We begin the series with the work of Lena H. Chandhok. Other notables are participating including Gary Panter, Vanessa Davis, Paul Swartz and many others. The series will run weekly on Vintage Sleaze. Make sure to follow and share!Tweet

One of the most amazing books (make that a series of books) ever is the astounding Household Physician published originally in 1905 with copyright in England by F. S. Woodruff, the book was republished ten years later in the United States, and again in 1923 by J.A. Brown. If you have the slightest interest in medical Illustration, homeopathic medicine, folk medicine or even art, this is an amazing source and SITE...the entire volumes are available online HERE.

A compendium unmatched! The site is sponsored by J. Crow's, a source of herbal medicinals, folk medicines and such.

The claim is made within the preface that "No one who reads this book thoroughly will be often imposed upon thereafter by quack nostrums..." I'm not sure about you, but I have had my fill of quack nostrums, and thus recommend this book.

Now I am not sure I would start here rather then, say, WebMD if I had a medical emergency... but if the bleeding has subsided and the poison has been purged, this makes for an entertaining afternoon. In many cases, the Household Physician is spot on...other times? Eh. Let's just say medicine has progressed a bit since the late 19th century, and bar Republican efforts, it will continue. Speaking of Republican efforts...how come they aren't suing because we are forced to buy AUTO insurance? Isn't that "unconstitutional" too? I'm just asking.

The illustrations are, as you can see. simply extraordinary and I suspect hold up to modern medicine better than the text. No artist is credited in the book, which contains 500 line drawings in addition to the remarkable color plates above (tipped in as a folded group) allowing all to play "invisible man" and marvel. All manner of pompous physicians are credited, but the artists? Not a thing. I loaded "Man" here in reverse so you can put him back together! Anyway, the illustrations and hundreds more are available online HERE.

Have fun...but talk to your doctor first! Numerous copies of the chunky bigassed multi- volume set are available from used book dealers. If you purchase one or all, make sure the inserted color plates have not been torn out. Especially in the Veterinary volume, as the cow is great!Tweet

The June 8, 2010 auction at Heritage Auction Galleries which set a record for a Cigar Store Indian (over $200,000 for the splendid figure here) may mean what you are seeing above is a few million dollars worth of wood. A Real Photo Postcard, circa 1940, of a most extraordinary collection of carved trade store figures. Quite a group. The piece sold above had exceptional original paint, and often these figures have had repaints over the years. The last photograph, a particular favorite of mine, shows my father and a friend, circa 1935, likely in upstate New York.Anonymous Real Photo Postcard (Group of Carved Trade Figures and Cigar Store Indians) circa 1940 Kodak "EKC" logo on reverse Collection Jim Linderman

Yes, once again the seen make the scene..it's fashion week! My helicopter is waiting... Fashion for me consists pretty much of a few episodes of Heidi's show and a glance through the New York Times Magazine Section a few times a year.

But I like pamphlets...and I made an animated cure for the fashion blues from one in the file. The idea is to create a dozen looks from one suitcase. Tweet

Exercise on the Apparatus Tumbling and Stunts by W. J. Wittich Book Review from the Past by Jim Linderman

W. J. Wittich and H. C. Reuter created an amazing book in 1925, which to my reckoning will go out of copyright in two years, so I thought I would jump the gun here a bit and wake up the publisher. As the few pieces of junk mail I receive frequently say "Time to Renew!"

Each photograph looks like a David Byrne video. The images, which I find striking and quite beautiful, are not even credited in the book. They appear to be a mixture of time-lapse and beautiful group shots. It is most unusual for a "technical" manual such as this to have no line drawings at all, but we are fortunate...

Now you may be wondering exactly what this book is. Most of us and unfortunately most of our children won't recognize the action, but some will...this is an early gymnastics and body movement guide prepared with extraordinary care and skill. It was also prepared with a wonderful love of the human form. Appreciate the excerpt here from the introduction:

"Swinging and climbing sensations are still the most pleasant elements of the physical life of man. Let us not forget that the physical activities which we today call play and recreation are the activities which our forefathers for hundreds and thousands of years indulged in every day, and all the time, in their struggle for existence while they went through the periods of the savage life, the nomad, the primitive agriculturist, and the tribal life. Our children today enjoy better than to climb up into trees, onto sheds, and roofs; the higher they go the better they like the experience, much to the dismay of the overanxious mothers."

There are 50 photographs, all splendid. The activites sound as good as they look:Forearm-support Circle, Reading Newspaper. Lazy Man's Circle, Double Hip Circle, Development of the Kipp, Acrobatic Hand-Shake and Elephant-Walk.

No, I have not been in a gym class for a while, and since my marathon running days are behind me now, I appreciate agility and fitness more than ever. These examples make me hurt in a different way...Now it just hurts that I can't do them!

The Book is 110 pages, and while WELL out of print, I am sure used copies are around. MIne was Five bucks and was once owned by a fellow in Texas, but it came back to Michigan and I found it this weekend.

W. J. Wittich, from La Crosse, Wisconsin must have been quite a guy. 15 years after producing his book, he created the "Wartime First Aid Wheel" as it is called in the splendid book by Jessica Helfand titled "Reinventing the Wheel" a wonderful design book listed at right somewhere. Wittich's Wheel appears on page 85. It was an 8 inch disc packaged in a sleeve.

In addition to serving on the faculty of Teachers College, La Crosse, Wisconsin Mr. Wittich was an advisor to the American Red Cross and was also a painter. I'd love to have more information on both the technique of photography and Mr. Wittich himself, but all I have is the book. Which is great, and if it were used a bit more, I suspect our kids would appreciate moving like they did again when his book came out.

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"Could it be Madness-this?

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday.""...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

4. It is not in any way replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image pertinent to the work referenced in the article

The copyright for some images are most likely owned by either the publisher, the writer(s) and/or artist(s) which produced them originally.

Any other uses of this image may be copyright infringement.

Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Any Trademarks used in this item listing are used for strictly descriptive purposes only. No association or endorsement is implied or inferred. No character or trademark ownership is given or implied.

If you are the owner of any aspect of an item which you believe to be copyrighted, please contact us immediately at j.winkel4@gmail.com